BÖBLINGEN, Germany – Kaiserslautern boys basketball coach Anthony Lopez tossed out the phrase “championship DNA” after Saturday’s 60-47 defeat to Stuttgart.

According to him, the Panthers (6-2, 4-2) still have it.

The Raiders (5-4, 2-4), however, continue their search to find it after watching what was once a 10-point advantage dissipate completely and the pendulum swing entirely in favor of the Panthers at Stuttgart High School.

It’s the third time that has happened to the Raiders just this week, having jumped out to early leads against Wiesbaden on Tuesday and against Stuttgart on Friday night. And yet, Kaiserslautern has come up empty each time.

“Even though they lost some key players, that team still believes,” Lopez said of Stuttgart. “They’re facing adversity, and they know how to overcome it. We’re still learning how to overcome it.”

Saturday’s victory marked the sixth straight for the Panthers, who entered the 2024-2025 season with a very different squad from the ones that won back-to-back titles.

Just one player – senior point guard Tyler Jackson – had logged any significant minutes prior to this season. So, growing pains were expected this winter.

Yet after season-opening losses to Wiesbaden, Stuttgart has been perfect with six more games before the European tournament.

“We can tell our experience is low, but in practice, we’re fixing that and try to get used to these close-game situations,” Jackson said. “So far, we’re doing a good job.”

For 12 and a half minutes, things didn’t look great for Stuttgart.

The home team trailed by double digits twice – 14-4 when Raider Garrett Vitter drove to the bucket at the 4-minute mark in the first quarter and 29-19 when B’Angelo Drew sank a pair of free throws at the 3:22 mark in the second quarter.

Vitter played a key role in that early onslaught. The Raiders gave the Panthers a heavy dosage of the sophomore center often in the opening quarter, and he used his height advantage to wreck Stuttgart.

He dropped 10 points over the first 8 minutes, all of which came in the paint.

Vitter had rolled his ankle in Friday’s game, though, and Lopez decided to limit his playing time by sitting him the entire second quarter.

When Vitter returned in the third quarter, the Panthers had a plan: front Vitter in the low block and have help-side defense with passes over the top. It worked, as Vitter scored just four more points.

“K-Town is a good basketball team,” Stuttgart coach Christopher Jackson said. “I know that the scores you see don’t necessarily show that, but they have been in every game they’ve played, and then, you can tell they wear down.

“A large majority of why we were down in the first half was because they executed and we didn’t. They were better than us in the first quarter.”

Eventually, the Panthers sped up the game and flipped the game on its head.

Perhaps nobody exemplified this change more than Tyler Jackson. He dropped 20 of his game-high 30 points in the second half, and he did it every which way – drives, putbacks, the free-throw line and a pair of triples.

“We have a lot of players on our team that can push the ball and play fast,” Tyler Jackson said. “It’s super fun, just going down and getting a layup and get right back on defense.”

In the end, the Raiders were left being so close to taking that next step as a team. Lopez expressed hope his players finally will open the door after knocking so many times already.

“We just got to believe,” Lopez said. “When we face the adversity, we just got to overcome it at some point.”

Girls

A 10-point loss Friday evening to Kaiserslautern didn’t sit too well with the Stuttgart Panthers.

After stewing overnight, the Panthers erased any traces of that loss Saturday afternoon. Stuttgart led from start to finish en route to a 38-10 victory over the Raiders.

The game was never closer than four points after the 3:08 mark in the first quarter and Stuttgart’s advantage didn’t dip below double figures after a Mia Snyder three-pointer with 3:18 left in the first half.

“(The loss) definitely made us really upset, but it made us realize how badly we actually wanted to win and how much better we can play,” said Panther forward Hannah Holmes, who recorded seven points and nine rebounds Saturday. “We didn’t use all of our potential (Friday), and I feel like today we showed what we can do.”

The weekend tilts pitted two of the top three teams in Division I against each other, as Stuttgart (6-1, 5-1) and Kaiserslautern (8-1, 5-1) had yet to lose. With the split, the duo stay tied atop the Division I standings, with Vilseck lurking after picking up its first league loss Friday evening.

Panther coach Nathan Garrett said he wasn’t too concerned about winning either game. He was focused on the players showing their championship mettle with their effort. And they met that expectation, especially on Saturday.

“I just wanted my girls to come out and to put up a fight,” Garrett said. “I was just happy from what we put out last night against K-Town and then today, that they were hungry and ready to play.”

Defense proved to be the big difference in Stuttgart’s win. The Panthers held the Raiders to 9% shooting from the field. The visitors made just one field goal in the first half – a Vernesha Oliver trey at the 3:08 mark in the first period.

Kaiserslautern went 12:22 between Oliver’s lone three-pointer to Elizabeth Marriott’s shot from beyond the arc off a pass from Hazel Sanders at the 6:46 mark in the third quarter.

Stuttgart also forced 32 Kaiserslautern turnovers – 20 of them on steals.

“We gave as much as we could out there,” said Stuttgart freshman Eve Henry, who scored a game-high 13 points. “We were helping each other. We were talking. Our defense was what helped us win the game.”

Kaiserslautern coach Aaron Scalise and the Raiders were left with plenty to ponder just half a day after taking control of the Division I standings. He said the team won’t let the performance get to them, though.

“We came out with some more fire and intensity (Friday),” Scalise said. “Just played real flat, real tired today. We will go back to the drawing board, fix some mistakes and come back stronger against Vilseck.”

K-town Sports

related stories

• Europe Scoreboard: Jan. 18, 2025